Gilbert Gutknecht: “there are a lot of issues we talk about here on the House floor where Members don't know much about the issue they are…”

“there are a lot of issues we talk about here on the House floor where Members don't know much about the issue they are talking about. This may be one for me. But I did serve on the Pension Commission of the State of Minnesota and I know something about defined benefit plans. I know something about defined contribution plans, and I understand how pension plans in general work, and so I rise in support of the Miller motion. The reason this issue is here, and my colleague from Ohio just described it very well, the reason we are here is that we are now in the process where many employers are converting their pension plans from old defined benefit plans to this new hybrid plan called a cash balance plan. And I am not opposed to that basic notion. But what happens, Members, and you need to understand, is many older workers show up for work one day and their pension plan has changed. Now, the employers say, well, that is our pension plan and it is our money. Well, that is not exactly true. That money is being held in trust, and this has been a very craftily done procedure to allow many employers or some employers to take money from the pension plans and convert it to their bottom line, and that is wrong. This is not their money. That is the first point everybody needs to understand. The second thing people need to understand is the Senate did a better job of writing their bill.…”